An American drone crashed north of Baghdad, a US defense official said Friday, after Iran-backed militants claimed they fired on an unmanned aircraft flying over Iraq. “A US UAV crashed near Balad airbase, Iraq” on Thursday night local time, the official told AFP, without identifying the type of drone that was lost. “Iraqi security forces recovered the aircraft. There were no injuries reported,” the official said, adding that “an investigation of the cause of the crash is underway.” The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel, …